4001: Odyssey Five
by Infernap
Summary: Set 1000 years after 3001: The Final Odyssey, this fanfiction intends to close the loose ends opened up at the end of said story. This is a fanfiction of the books, but there isn't a category for those, so I placed it here.
1. Chapter 1

January 1, 4001

As the celebrations went on to welcome in the Fifth Millennium on all the planets, planet rings, and space stations, something very strange was happening. For, something from far, far, outer space, had just flickered like a shadow across the surface of Man's furthest space probe, launched back in the Second Millennium. The space probe flickered, shuddered, and went dead. On Earth, somewhere in the wilderness once known as America, a warning light flickered on. But there was no-one there to see except a solitary camera.

* * *

Othello Rogers was never one for parties. He had lightish-brown skin, dark brown eyes that almost looked like chocolate, and smooth black hair. He was 25 years old, and he didn't see the big deal about the Fifth Millennium. "If that antiquated religion was discredited, then why do we still celebrate the years after its beginning?", he wondered. "It really is just as arbitrary as the names of these planets, named after an even-longer discredited religion. Othello was really agnostic over the old Theist vs. Deist debate. As he had never really seemed to understand why there were two different religions. "They both agree that there can be one god,", Othello said to himself. "And that's all that really matters, if they can meet halfway, isn't it?" Othello's Pocket Assistant, Servo, went off.

"Requesting teleport into room. Request granted?" Othello sighed. Why couldn't he be alone for one night? He was just a loner scientist who over-thought things and knew about the old rockets. It turns out, it was those things that they needed him for.

Susan Zhong warped into the room. She was in charge of all scientists in the Anubis Tower. Essentially, she was Othello's boss.

She had a bit lighter skin than Othello, and had blazing red hair. "Good Fifth Millennium to you.", she said, and Othello groaned as she gave him a braincap transfer.

* * *

Othello was standing in a room overgrown with roots and trees of all kinds.

"What you see before you," he heard. "was once the headquarters for NASA, an organization you're familiar with, thank Deus. Here, you see a panel that keeps track of all the satellites that NASA sent. This one, Voyager 1, is reporting a serious malfunction due to loss of power. That has a very low chance of happening, and the probe is very important to us. Your mission, therefore, is to figure out what caused the probe to malfunction."

* * *

Othello was back in his living space, a fraction of a second after he had left it. He had, of course, been in space before, but this would be the first time that would require an EVA, and the journey would be interstellar. No matter the dreams of humans 2000 years before, this was still a rare occurrence.

"I'll do it." Othello told Susan.

"Good.", she responded. "I've already asked your crew."

"Your crew members for this mission will be the best of the best. Here are their Idents."

Othello saw many people he recognized, such as Malcolm Floyd, a descendant of the famous Heywood Floyd, and Roxanne Lander, one of the top new cadets.

"And best of all," Susan told Othello. "The ship will be sent ahead."

This was standard space protocol for VIP travellers. The ship was sent ahead with a teleporter on board. Then, when the passengers wanted to get on the ship, they teleported there. Teleportation was, of course, extremely risky, as a few missing atoms could kill your body, but it was a risk that most were willing to take. All Othello had to do now was wait until the ship was almost at Voyager.

"How long until I meet the crew?", Othello asked.

"We could do it right now if you wished." Susan replied.

"If they ask, I'll meet them. If not, when we have to teleport." Othello sighed and Susan teleported out of his living space.

* * *

This is supposed to be the true conclusion to the Space Odyssey series, as all of the "Firstborn" talk didn't really make much sense. See you soon for chapter two.


	2. Chapter 2

Hello, and welcome to Chapter Two. Let's start reading (for you) and writing (for me), shall we?

* * *

Othello was sitting in his room, still collecting his mind from the visit from Susan, when Servo went off again.

"The scientists creating the rocket ship want to meet you, to see your height and weight for designing your sleep quarters."

"Okay then, Servo. I'll go."

Once Othello arrived at the IPSA, the InterPlanetary Space Agency, the scientists there greeted him and they immediately set to work measuring his height, weight, and mass in different situations. It only took a scan of a few lasers, and then Othello asked an important question; "Could I be on the ship when it leaves? I don't want teleportation to kill me, as it might, and I'd like to get to know the ship before we arrive."

This, of course, caused a huge uproar among the scientists. Some saying of course, and some saying it's much easier to teleport on. Othello left before it got any more hectic, saying "Why can't scientists ever agree?"

Othello was glad they had discovered a way to make Braincaps without losing hair, even though by the time they did it, half of the humans were permanently bald. This was from not having hair for hundreds of generations. However, Othello still had his original hair, and he was proud of it. In his quarters, Othello reflected on these things, and then he got an incoming call.

"Alright, we've decided on a compromise. You can go on ahead of time if you can convince at least four other crew members to go with you. For a mission of this scale, five members should be able to handle any situations. Once you've convinced four other crew members, talk to us again.", the head scientist said. Othello was trapped between a rock and a hard place. He wouldn't like to live with four other people for so long, but he wanted to be on the ship ahead of time.

"Guess I'll have to find more crew members", he told himself. "Servo, give me their Idents again."

* * *

It's too bad Arthur Clarke never made a true ending to the Space Odyssey series. In any case, I'll continue writing, so please continue reading.


	3. Chapter 3

I just realized I made the last chapter feel a bit like a video game adaptation of a movie. Oh, well. Let's pick up a bit later on.

Othello, sadly, could not find more people to go with him.

"Why is everyone so backward, by Deus?", he asked himself. Therefore, he had to consent to teleportation. As months passed and he waited to be teleported, he became less nervous. He showed up on the day of departure ready, and was swiftly teleported onto the ship.

At arrival, Othello was greeted by the ship's supercomputer, Henry. In the two millenniums since the launch of Discovery, technology had advanced so far that Henry, ten times as powerful as HAL9000, could now fit into the size of a flea... not that he would want to. It was always good for humans to be able to interact with something that they can see, and Henry was encased in a vaguely anthropomorphic form.

"Good day, sir. Time to destination is 12 days, 6 hours, 18.04834 seconds. Please enjoy yourself."

Othello showed his thanks and activated his Braincap to quickly immerse himself in a virtual reality, with a timer to alert him to return to the real world in the amount of time indicated by Henry. After all, even travelling at 0.98c, years after its invention, it was still quite easy to immerse oneself in a VR so real that there was no way out without a warning. Many lost themselves forever in their virtual worlds before a timer became mandatory on all new VR sets. Food and water still had to be provided, and virtual reality could now create actual food and water to sustain its users while they were completely unaware of the real world or what it entailed. These virtual realities could even contain complete copies of themselves, which would contain more copies ad infinitum. Yet, all of this was only stored on a piece of silicon as large as the AE35 unit on Discovery. However, containing over 100 yottabytes, the virtual reality systems contained billions of times more data. As the ship grew closer to its destination, more and more passengers arrived.


End file.
